Portable Videodisc Players: Why They Still Make Sense

In a marketplace that’s filled with dozens of options for viewing video on the go, portable videodisc players still make sense if you want something that has a larger screen than a smartphone has and typically costs less than a $400 tablet computer does.

Portable videodisc players also make sense financially, because their prices continue to fall. The average selling price this year is $93, compared with $108 in 2009, according to consumer-research company The NPD Group. We even found models that were on sale for less than $70 online and in electronics stores in August.

Unfortunately, fewer models of portable videodisc players from which to choose exist these days. LG, Polaroid and Sylvania dropped out of the market, and we expect more manufacturers to leave in the next 2 years. Most manufacturers that remain cut their selections and now make only one or two models rather than the two to three choices that they offered in 2009. Although nobody with whom we spoke could give us an exact measurement of how much the overall market has shrunk, based on our research, we estimate that there are 25 percent fewer models in the marketplace than there were in 2009.

Outside of several more models that now include Blu-ray Disc playback, portable videodisc players are losing performance features as a way for manufacturers to keep costs—and thus prices—low.

BLU-RAY SURGE. The biggest change that we’ve seen in the market for portable videodisc players in the past 2 years is the release of more models that can play high-definition Blu-ray video. In 2009, only one such model existed: the Panasonic DMP-B15, which came at the exotic price of $800. But this year, portable Blu-ray players from Panasonic, Philips, RCA, Samsung and Sony come with an average price of $350. And Panasonic’s latest model, the DMP-B200, costs just $300.

We expect the prices of portable Blu-ray players to fall by $100 in the next year, and we believe that all manufacturers will offer at least one such model by 2013. That’s because sales of Blu-ray discs have increased every year since the format was launched 5 years ago and continue to rise faster than sales of any other video media, according to IHS Screen Digest, which studies technology markets. Blu-ray discs represented 20 percent of total videodisc sales in 2010, according to IHS Screen Digest.

And at least one manufacturer isn’t content with having just a portable Blu-ray player. In 2010, Samsung released its BD-C8000 ($500), which is the first portable videodisc player of any kind to support 3-D discs. But before you agonize over which type of glasses to get the kids for when you’re in the family vehicle, you should know that the model’s 3-D-video playback works only if the player is hooked up to a 3-D-enabled TV. In other words, you won’t see 3-D images on the portable videodisc player’s screen. (Instead, you’ll get a crisp, HD conventional image.) That’s disappointing when you consider that 3-D technology is possible in a small screen. For example, T-Mobile’s 8.9-inch G-Slate tablet supports 3-D video.

But if you buy the BD-C8000, you don’t need a separate conventional 3-D videodisc player (which typically costs $150–$300) for your living room.

The inclusion of 3-D functionality in a portable videodisc player would seem to be a natural fit when you consider that movie studios and TV-makers all are pushing 3-D video entertainment in the home. Consequently, although we haven’t heard of any other portable 3-D videodisc players being introduced, it wouldn’t surprise us if a few more appeared in 2012. However, we believe prospects are slim for a portable videodisc player that has a 3-D-enabled screen. That functionality would cost a lot, and we believe that the extra cost will prove to be a deterrent in a category in which manufacturers are looking for ways to save money.

But 3-D-playback capability is only one of the Samsung model’s unique features. The BD-C8000 also is the only portable videodisc player that has built-in Wi-Fi connectivity, which allows it to run Samsung’s apps for Blockbuster, Facebook, Netflix and Pandora Radio. Wireless connectivity would be a logical addition to keep portable videodisc players relevant in an increasingly streaming-friendly world, but the practical application unfortunately leaves much to be desired.

Wi-Fi connectivity is useful only where you can get a stable Internet connection that can support the high-bandwidth transfer speed that’s necessary to stream movies, such as at home. This functionality would be adequate in a hotel room or at an airport—or even on a Wi-Fi-enabled airplane or train, both of which are on the rise—but it won’t work on the drive to grandma’s house. And don’t look for a mobile broadband solution either. Using mobile broadband while on the go is impractical because of the high costs and bandwidth caps that cellular broadband services have, says Ross Rubin, who is the director of industry analysis for NPD.

Another drawback: The BD-C8000 doesn’t let you download a movie via Wi-Fi and take it with you. You can take downloaded movies with you, of course, if you connected the model to your computer or to a USB storage device, but that’s also true of any portable videodisc player that has a USB port.

Although no other manufacturer has integrated Wi-Fi into a portable videodisc player, we expect to see more of this connectivity—including direct-download capability—in the next 2 years. But because of the high cost of implementing Wi-Fi in a portable videodisc player, we believe that the feature likely will remain the purview of portable Blu-ray players, which must have a network connection to support the downloadable features of BD-Live to partake of the previews, interviews and behind-the-scenes bonus footage.

CUTTING BACK. Unfortunately, 3-D, Blu-ray and Wi-Fi are the extent of the evolutions in portable videodisc players. Instead, manufacturers have cut back on the features that their models include. For instance, in 2009, dual headphone jacks, which allow two people to listen to the same movie through separate headphones, were standard in all of the players that cost at least $150. But this year, Panasonic and Samsung cut back to include just one headphone jack on all of their models.

What that means is that you’ll need an audio-out splitter if, say, both of your kids want to watch “Toy Story 3” in the car and want to hook up their headphones to the portable videodisc player. The good news is that splitters cost less than $5 and are easy to find among the audio connectors in any electronics store.

We also have noticed that fewer models have a USB port or SD card slot, both of which are handy ways to import images, music or video from other devices. About 30 percent of all portable videodisc players have a USB port or SD slot. In 2009, at least 40 percent of all players had one or both. Again, this is because of manufacturers consciously withdrawing the features, rather than from the mere reduction of total models that are in the marketplace.

Speaking of importing files, 2 years ago, Philips had a portable videodisc player that had an iPod docking station. We believed that this idea would catch on, but no new models added such docking capabilities. And Philips discontinued its docking unit. Also, no models have auxiliary inputs, which allow you to bring in files from a personal media player or a smartphone.

Finally, we found no improvements since 2009 in the screen resolution of standard-definition portable videodisc players. In fact, some of the high-resolution models that were on the market 2 years ago vanished in favor of cheaper options. Two years ago, for example, we expected to see by now more portable videodisc players that have LED-backlit screens, which have become all the rage among TV manufacturers because they cut down on glare, provide superior contrast and prevent picture washout when you look at the screen from a sharp angle. But no manufacturer with which we spoke indicated that LED-backlighting would come to portable videodisc players in the next year or two.

ANY FUTURE? With so few technological innovations and so many regressions, it begs the question: What does the future hold for portable videodisc players?

In 2009, we speculated that portable videodisc players would benefit from the mobile Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) specification for the transmission of TV to portable devices. But the development of mobile TV has stalled. Only one manufacturer, Philips, has incorporated ATSC technology into a portable videodisc player that’s sold in the United States, the 7-inch PET749/37 ($180). Unfortunately, the analysts with whom we spoke were unable to say whether the device works in any market in the country.

“Mobile digital-TV broadcasts, which would work better in vehicles, are still rolling out across the United States,” Rubin says. “The service is free, but [ATSC technology] adds significantly to the price” of a portable videodisc player.

Ultimately, the “portability” is the strength of portable videodisc players and the reason why we believe that they’ll stick around at least for a few more years. Although more consumers download movies to their smartphones or tablets, the problem with such a download is that your choice of devices on which you can watch those movies is limited in most cases to only that particular device. Thus, the $14.99 Harry Potter movie that you downloaded to your Apple iPad can run only on a device that’s made by Apple. Blu-ray discs or DVDs, of course, can be viewed on any portable Blu-ray or DVD player.

But this accessibility problem could change by early 2012 with the introduction of UltraViolet, which is a system that will allow you to store your purchased video in the online cloud and download it to whatever device that you choose. (Apple devices already let you do this within Apple’s closed system.) We’ve seen demonstrations of UltraViolet, and we found the technology to work well. You can play the same video on an Android tablet and a Windows smartphone.

UltraViolet could open up easy multidevice functionality for downloaded video to all other types of devices, says Tom Adams, who is an analyst at IHS Screen Digest. In fact, we believe that it’s the only thing that could accelerate the transition—so far extremely slow—from discs to downloads.

At this time, UltraViolet won’t work with Apple devices. Adams predicts that that could change if all other platforms and manufacturers throw their support behind UltraViolet, but we remain skeptical. Apple never has shown any proclivity to do things the way that everyone else does them.

If UltraViolet catches on, you finally would have the same universal interoperability with downloaded video that the videodisc provides today, Adams says.

And portable videodisc players would speed up their fade to black.

Melissa J. Perenson is a senior editor at PCWorld and has covered computer technology for 18 years. She is a regular contributor to Consumers Digest.